•We investigate the relationship between ERM adoption and solvency.•A sample of publicly listed insurers in the European Union is considered.•Our results show that ERM adoption is negatively related to insurance firm solvency.•Insurance solvency is also related to firm-specific factors and market demand. We investigate the relationship between Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) adoption and solvency for publicly listed insurers in the European Union. Our results, which control for endogeneity problem, show that ERM-adoption insurers experience a decrease in their solvency level, which may trigger their financial vulnerability in the case of unexpected shocks. Firm-specific characteristics such as leverage, ROA, combined-ratio and business type are also found to significantly increase the EU insurers’ solvency, whereas the impact of firm size and age is insignificant. Moreover, insurers that have adopted the ERM share the common characteristics of higher performance, higher leverage, bigger size, and more diversified businesses. Finally, the demand of the market is an important factor of ERM adoption and insurance solvency.